 to wrap up Women's History Month with saluting and celebrating the poets and authors of Sisters Across Oceans. Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Today, on the last day of Women's History Month, Sister Power's special guests include Sandra Sims, Karla Brundage, Apia Cora, and Brittany Queens. Welcome to Sister Power. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. This is great. Yeah, this is fun. You know, this is our second Sisters Across Oceans. And I'm so glad we have the founder here that helped put it together. But I want to go, look, everyone, this is Sister Power first. We have people from women from Ghana. This is exciting. Very exciting. Apia Cora and Brittany, I want to start with you, Apia Cora. What is a warm greeting in your language? Well, I have several languages. I'm going to say it in my mother's tongue. And that's Avae. The language is called Avae. It's spelled E-W-E, but pronounced Avae. And it means you are welcome. Mahalo. Really? Yes. I would say aqua la, also in my mother tongue, which is tree. And it's spelled T-W-I. Aquava simply means welcome. Well, aloha and welcome, Queens. You know, I'm going to start with Carla. You know, I just love the book Sisters Across Oceans here. I always say it's a feel-good book. So Carla, can you share a bit about the West Oakland to West Africa was founded? Thank you. Thank you so much for having us, Sharon. I'm so honored to be here. So briefly, I was living in Cote d'Ivoire teaching English when my principal Daphne Muse actually encouraged us to attend the African International Schools Association conference, the ASA conference. And I met Sir Black there. He's the co-founder of Ahalakasa. And basically, after a few years of planning, we launched our first exchange. I was going to Mills at the time, and it was part of this community engagement fellowship. But what I did not know was the impact the exchange would have on all the participants. And after the exchange with the support of Pacific Raven Press, we published our first book, Spirits Carry Our Voices. And then we traveled to Ghana and we participated in a poetry slam. We also went to Cape Coast and Elmina, where we visited the slave dungeons. And this was such a powerful moment for us all. All the participants, except maybe one were Black, and the power of that return to our ancestors forever changed us. Yeah, it's just been beautiful. And we've been going ever since. And that's what led to the eventual connection with the links in Hawaii and our sisters across ocean exchange. Wow. So, you know, Sandra, tell me about your experience and how did this impact you? This was, oh, thanks, Sharon. This was such a powerful moment for us. When Carla brought the project to us, along with her, with her mother, Dr. Catherine Takara, you know, who's a retiring professor here, we were really, really excited about doing it. And so what she got us to do was to have a series of poetry workshops. Now, I write, my background is law, but I didn't hadn't written poetry before. So she led us through a series of poetry workshops to help us to begin that writing experience. And for me, it was really, really poignant because at the time, I had recent, you know, as you probably know, my husband had passed away. And some of the topics that she had us to talk about helped to address some of what I was going through at that time. And in fact, you know, the ones that I wrote really talked about that time. So it was a fantastic experience, a very moving experience for all of us that participated. And then to have the exchange with our sisters in Ghana, just icing on the cake, icing on the cake. It was wonderful. It was a wonderful experience. Now, that's good to hear. Well, Peacord, what was the exchange like for you? Look, I mean, we started this exchange in March 2021. And this was just about a year since we had officially been going through COVID in Ghana. And so there wasn't much happening on the poetry scene. Of course, it was International Women's Month as well. But women weren't meeting. We couldn't do much together. So to have something like this happen at that time. And as I'm sure you realize by now, we're women who span different ages, different generations. And it was just an experience of learning, not just culturally, but even from that perspective, speaking to women who had gone through life and experienced things that I hadn't experienced personally. But then also the vulnerability and doing it the way women know how to do it, putting everything aside. It was just a beautiful experience. And then being able to tap into ourselves and write. I mean, we wrote about so many different things that we didn't even realize we had within us. I think one of the pieces that stood out for me the most is when we're asked to just focus on a powerful Black woman in our lives. And this woman could be someone living or someone who's left us. And that was a powerful experience for me because when I started the gap on my grandmother, and it just took me back to a time where I didn't even know I could go. So that's the kind of beauty and the kind of power that this exchange has brought our way. And I would do it over and over again. Absolutely. I can't wait for the second book. So Brittany, what did you learn about Black American women and culture? Through the exchange, I really found out that there was a great connection with Black American women and culture because when we first brought together, I think I was the youngest and I didn't know how it was going to be being the youngest person in the space. But I realized that it was all about love because I didn't see myself being that young person. I could relate with everything that went on during our show. Well, you know, it's about always keeping a fresh approach. You know, you have your season and then you have your freshness too. And so I'm loving this collaboration. So Carla, I'm going to come to you. What does the title of the book represent? Oh, the title of the book represents the exchange itself, Sisters Across Oceans. There are two oceans to be crossed from Hawaii to Ghana, crossing the Pacific and then crossing the Atlantic. Or if you go the other way, it's the Indian and the Atlantic. So it's really a huge journey. And I think Black women, African American women in Hawaii feel that distance. And so to be able to connect with women in Ghana, I feel was profoundly healing for all of us. Oh, I like that. Sandra, how did you get along with your partner? Tell me about that experience. Oh, my partner was delightful. She was actually a poet. She was concerned and as Brittany has alluded, she was considerably younger than me. In fact, she was the same age as one of my daughters. But she had written several books of poetry in Ghana. And we use the method that runs your method where you write one poem and then the person takes the last line and begins their next poem with that. So we had an opportunity to do some shared experiences. A piyakur has mentioned about the powerful women that we were going to write about. And as it turns out, you know, certainly we all somehow got back to our own ancestors. A piyakur mentioned her grandmother, my partner's memsis. She mentioned her grandmother as well as being the powerful woman that she was writing about. And I wrote about my mother, of course. And that was an interesting thing because when she started off talking about writing about poor for women that influenced you, I guess the traditional notion is you think about, you know, some, you know, some celebrity type or some woman in history, but that we were all able to draw from our own cultural and ancestral experiences with women in our own circles who had provided such wonderful influences and stories and exchanges for us was was an expression in another self to me. That was quite powerful to realize that we all had that connection to to really inspiring and powerful ancestors of our own. I'm loving the story. That was really cool. Yeah, I'm loving that. A piyakur, I want to come to you. That beautiful fiery red hair. Tell my sister viewers about your work with Ghana writers. Oh, you know, in our part of the world, I mean, and I mean, it's not history lesson tonight, maybe on another day we can go through that. But there was a time when writing was so powerful, especially with a political voice and certain political times you went through a series of military rules, you know, or a military eras before we got to the Fourth Republic, which brought us to democracy. So during that time writers were so powerful and their voices were silenced. Now there's a gap between people who we'd call the literary sages in Ghana and people like Brittany and I and Sir Black who Carla mentioned, who are writing now in contemporary times. And it's a great time to write because we have a voice, we have the freedom to write, we have the freedom to express ourselves. But it's also a great time to write because there's so many interesting influences from around the world. So we can share authentic voices, but we can also tap into those things that we're experiencing via through social media or any other form of media really or through exchanges like we've done and that we're celebrating tonight. But the biggest thing for me is the fact that, you know, we're able to work with a lot of young writers and help them find their voices and help them see that, you know, it's not just about creating beautiful arts or things that can end up on the shelf and be sold and make good money from it, but it's about sharing yourself and giving voices to people who don't have voices, especially women, through our own voices. And so it's been a very powerful, you know, time for me working with young writers, opposed to the Poetry Association of Ghana, going through a halakasa which, you know, runs all these slums and now some of the best poetry slumbers are women. And that has been a great empowering time for us as well. Yeah. I'm loving that. It's all about motivating, educating and empowering one another. That's what it's all about. So Carla, what do you love most about these exchanges? I actually want to respond a little bit to something that Piacor just said in this answer. When I first met Sir Black, he said, I'm choosing poetry to reach our youth because, and I'm quoting him, so he said, because we've lost our culture. All the young people want to be rappers. And I'm like, that's hilarious because in America, we're trying to teach all of our rappers that they come from the African spoken word tradition. And so that was an inspiration of this exchange was to kind of tap into both of our core mission of helping young people learn about our histories and our connections. And so I love that. And then I'll just quickly say the other thing I love are the friendships I've made. I've made so many amazing friends from all the exchanges. So I just wanted to say that. Oh, how about you, Sandra? Tell me a little bit more about your experience. Oh, as I said, it was, it was, it was quite a powerful thing. I remember the first Saturday that we actually connected with our, you know, with our Ghana partners. There was obviously a significant time difference. We were meeting at, I think it was like seven in the morning, but to me very early, and they were meeting at, you know, seven in the evening. And I mean, I remember that moment of when we actually got that connection. And we were going to be actually communicating. It was just, I got, I got chicken skin just thinking about the fact that we were going to be connecting with these amazing, powerful women in Ghana to talk about our poems, to share our poems. And Carla and Catherine did such a wonderful job of, you know, kind of keeping us all in line, at least so we'd go smoothly. But it was such a wonderful moment to see that we had so much in common. First off, that was, you know, we have these powerful connections with our experiences, even though we're thousands of miles apart, the things that we valued about our ancestors and particularly our mothers and grandmothers. That just stuck with me too, as well, that so many of these were the women who, you know, gave us such inspiration. And of course, you know, some of my Brittany was, it was just really, really exciting and such a powerful moment. And I am looking forward to the next one as well. But since you did bring that up, Brittany, I just got a message that someone said, you may be ready to read one of your poems to us very quickly. Are you ready for mama, she is? Or what is I love? Which one are you going to read? I'll start with, I love. Thank you. Those. I love this poem that you sent me about love. I love the way that you see love. And I love the way that you love. Love to me is a man. This woman is shout. Is she or her? Is he or him? Love to me is us. And we are all an expression of God's love. To me, love is a picture in my heart. Love is a song I sing word for word. Love is a poem I can recite from the inside. Love is this art that I create. To me, love is a road I know so well. Love is a book I read over and over again. Love is a movie I have watched more than twice. Love is this very poem I'm writing. Love is this very moment I'm sharing with you. I love that. I always tell people on this show, thank you so much Mahalo Nui Loa, that there are five words I don't think we use enough. And it's that I love you and thank you. I think if more people heard that the world would just be such a better place. But I want to come to Apocore right now. And I see on Instagram you are very active in TV, radio, and even with international relations. What exciting happening should we be on the lookout for? So I mean one of the biggest things that's happening at the moment is the fact that and since we're talking about writing and we spoke a little bit about poetry earlier, after five years of fighting and just keeping the fire burning, the poetry association of Ghana has been incorporated officially as an association under the laws of Ghana. And it's taken so long because when we started on this journey, the Registrar-General's office in Ghana didn't know how to register us. They didn't know if we're just a club or just a group of young people who were youthfully exuberant. They really didn't know how to classify us. And then we had had so many poets doing things on their own and there's so many movements and we needed to find the way and for Ghanaian poets. But I was just saying that yes, since we've officially incorporated the Poetry Association of Ghana, you can look out for lots of poetry. There are lots of women in the group and again, I mean I can't speak about women enough because we're beautiful women here tonight. But just the beautiful things that women are doing are writing about and the things that they are actually rising up against that nobody wants to speak about and they're putting their voices to. And I think you should really look out for that. Amen. I totally agree. And the same is here. I mean we can talk about what the Judge Katanji Brown Jackson is going through. We can talk about that all day and we're going to talk about that later on sister part in April. But I would have come to retire Judge Sandra Sims. Can you, will there be upcoming projects? Yes, in fact for those of you that are here in Honolulu on June the 5th, is that June the 5th or June the 4th Carla? June the 4th, the Saturday June the 4th. At the Downtown Arts Center, we're going to be having a reading session of Sisters Across the Oceans and it's going to be really, really fun. We're going to have a connection to meet with our sisters in Ghana. It's open to the public. It's free. It's free. There will be refreshments and an opportunity to purchase the book if you want. And I think we'll also have an opportunity to meet the artist for the cover who's also one of the poets, Kim Keyes, who created the artwork for the cover of Sisters Across the Oceans. Hopefully we may have an opportunity to, oh yes, she did a wonderful job and we'll have an opportunity to share some of that as well. So we're looking forward to really getting together with the members of our communities and you have a chance to meet some of the poets and do an exchange there. So it's, I forgot what time is it Carla? It's 10, no. Five to seven. It's five to seven. So it's Saturday June the 4th from five to seven at the Downtown Arts Center in Chinatown in Honolulu. So come. It's free. It's free. I'll see everyone there. Brittany, I want to come back to you before I go to Carla. Tell us about your foundation that provides women's hygiene products and education to women in need. Yeah, yes. I founded a foundation, the Brittany Tashi Foundation. I began operations in 2021, January 2021, but this is something that I've always wanted to do when I was in SHS, but I didn't really get a chance to. So I completed SHS and entered university. So with my foundation, we basically do crowdfunding to buy hygiene products for women, which is sanitary pads. And our first female all women project was on world menstrual health and hygiene day 2021. I had just organized another event. So running this event, I almost thought it was nearly impossible, but I got a lot of support. And then one of my greatest contributors and donors were Estima Kida. So I got a lot of support. And then within two weeks, we were able to mobilize the funds to get sanitary pads for the women. And we were able to donate to 500 kaiyes in across central. When I say kaiyes, it means headquarters. When you come to Ghana market, you see a lot of women who help you carry your stuff. So you see them with their pants on their head. And we were able to donate 500 to over 500 of them. And so this year, we're also running our second event on menstrual health hygiene. And it's supposed to take place on the 28th of May this year. But this year, instead of doing it in a crowd, we plan on taking it outside our crowd to the northern region. Yeah. So this year, we're also looking at a much sustainable program, which is that would give about 100 underprivileged girls one year's free supply of sanitary pads. So for the whole year, they would be covered with women products. That's what we intend to do this year. That's wonderful. Thank you. I love hearing about that. Thank you so much. But before we close out, Carla, I just want you to in 30 seconds or less, tell our system power viewers, what is the value of this type of project? The value of this project really are the healing that comes from connecting the connections themselves that people make and the ability to sustain those connections and to move forward. As Brittany just shared, she has connected with Mama Makita, who has now they have a lasting connection around this new foundation she started. And I'm just hoping more and more connections that are sustainable that uplift us all as women and as Black women and as Black people will continue. I like that appeal court. Tell us something about Ghana that we have not discussed. I just, that's a place I want to go. I have outfits from Ghana, but I've never been there. Well, Ghana is a place to be at the moment. You know, just before COVID hits in late 2019, our president, His Excellency Nane Kufajo, actually initiated the year of return. And of course, 2019 marked, yes, marked 400 years since, you know, the first slave ships left the coast of Ghana and of many parts of Africa as well. So we've had an influx of people just repatriating from different parts of the diaspora to come and take their places back at home. Now, one of the beautiful things I'll talk about very quickly is that the Diaspora Africa Forum, which is headed by Ambassador Erica Bennett here in Ghana, is doing a lot of work to make sure that when people come back to Ghana to the motherland, they are not just coming to group around in the dark, but they have a home, they have an effective institution that's helping them to settle. And great news, a few, a couple of months ago, a couple of weeks ago, we got to launch the Africa flag. So now the diaspora is officially the sixth region of Africa. And so we have a flag that represents that. And it was so beautiful to see people come from all over the world, all over the continent, to launch that flag and just for us to reclaim our power. And this is being led by a black woman. So yes, so that that's, you know, something amazing and it's happening in Ghana. And I hope to see all of you, even if you don't move to the motherland, but, you know, just come spend some more time here and claim your space and your place, because this is where you belong. Absolutely. I look for sisters in power in Hawaii, for sure. Sister power, Queens, Carla, Sandra, Apiakoi, Brittany. Thank you so much for your wisdom. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. Aloha. Donate to us at think.kawaii.com. Mahalo.